


Chaz, Chuck, and Charlie

by kikabennet



Category: Ed Edd n Eddy
Genre: Eds are dads, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Father-Son Relationship, Fatherhood, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Multi, daddy Double D, daddy Eddy, daddy ed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-10 12:16:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7844578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikabennet/pseuds/kikabennet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Eds lost touch once adulthood rolled around. Now, a single father, Eddy moves his eleven year old son from the city back to Peach Creek, only to find out he's neighbors with his old friends, Ed and Double D. As their boys quickly take a shine to one another, and the Eds revive their friendship, Eddy and Double D find out maybe they've been missing something in their lives too, and it's been there all along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my gosh. I feel so weird writing an EEnE fic, but I figure I should try. I've recently fallen in love with the EddyEdd tumblr after falling in love all over again with my childhood obsession and now I'm so nervous because writing something so silly and slapstick somewhat seriously...it's a little nerve wrecking. I hope you enjoy and I'd be happy to continue it. Just let me know! And I am happy to answer all questions and I try my best to reply to ALL comments in a timely manner.

Eddy turned the radio down slightly as he stole a glance at his son. _His_ son. That part was hard to believe. This thin little kid with the same thick blue-black hair and arched eyebrows. Eddy watched as the eleven-year-old pushed his glasses up-the middle held together with tape.

“What's it like in Peach Creek, Dad?” Chaz asked, staring out the window.

“Boring as all get out,” Eddy lied.

Unlike Eddy, Chaz had been born and raised in the city, a place Eddy thought he belonged. It was where he met Kim after all. Kim was a hot-headed city girl who loved money and fame just as much as Eddy. The two of them had had a whirlwind courtship followed by a quickie wedding in Vegas and worked together at a high-end bar. They would go home to their little shoe box apartment and lie in bed for hours talking about saving to open their own bar and restaurant or maybe an amusement park or maybe buy out some big old touristy mansion and make up ghost stories to bring people there. It never happened, however, because shortly into their first month after being married, Kim found out she was pregnant.

Eddy could still remember the night he tossed and turned hearing baby Chaz howling in his crib, and after finally tending to him once again (Kim just always seemed to be too tired to get up and simply slept through his wails), he had found a note under the baby. A quickly scrawled letter from Kim explaining that everything had been a mistake. Eddy, the marriage, the baby, and that she just didn't want to spend the rest of her life playing wife and mommy.

In any other universe, Eddy would have dumped the infant at the nearest orphanage as fast as he could. There was no one more selfish than him, he thought. In any other situation, he would have done just what Kim would have done.

And that's why Eddy was moving back to Peach Creek, the place where he'd learned about making sacrifices for others in the first place. His best friends Ed and Double D had taught him that.

Ed and Double D.

It had been years since he'd seen them. The three of them-no, that wasn't fair, Ed hadn't been part of it, not really. The two of them, Eddy and Double D had gotten into a big fight a year after graduation. The three of them had planned to go to the city together, go to college together, but Eddy changed his mind about school. He wanted to make money, not spend it on earning some degree.

“Dad?”

He snapped out of his thoughts to see Chaz looking at him.

“What, Kid?” Eddy asked, patting the little boy's knee.

“Will things be better in Peach Creek?”

Eddy knew what Chaz meant, even though the little boy didn't come out and say it. Chaz, whose real name was Charles, didn't have many friends. Well, any friends, actually. Eddy had tried to throw him a great birthday party once, when he was turning eight. He had gone all out and rented a bouncey house and a balloon animal shaper and all of the cake and ice cream and candy a kid could want. For weeks he told Chaz about what a cool party it would be and how all of the kids in his class would want to pal around with him. Excited, Chaz had given an invitation to every kid in his class, only to have none of them show up.

Eddy remembered standing at the edge of the park with Chaz, who was holding balloons, hoping to signal any of his classmates who might be lost on their way to the party.

Eddy remembered feeling that way at times, but those memories were very far away because after he met Ed and Double D...well, he didn't long for friendship anymore. He had the two greatest friends a kid could ask for.

And for years, he had secretly wished and prayed (and Eddy was not a prayer) that Chaz could find his own Ed and Double D. He wished that more than anything for his son.

“Things'll be much better, Kid,” he told him. “You'll see.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Daddy!” Little Sophie ran into the guest bedroom which had 'Dad's Studio' written on a sheet of paper and taped to the door.

Ed looked up from his comic panels and turned around to see his daughter, Sophie, run into the studio holding a broken toy.

“Look what Chuck did!” She said, stomping her feet up and down angrily. “He broke Penny! He broke her, Daddy!”

Ed frowned and stood up, standing tall.

“Charles, you come in here right now, young mister!”

Chuck slinked into the studion, hands jammed deep into his pockets. Ed looked between Sophie and Chuck.

“Did you break your little baby sister's toy?” Ed asked.

“Dad, come on,” Chuck said with casual disinterest. “Penny was already broken. I just told Sophie I could fix her. If she paid me a quarter.”

“Why would Penny conveniently already be broken?” Sophie demanded, chucking the doll body at him. “Daddy, he's lying!”

“Dad, I'm not lying,” Chuck said. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

Ed scratched his head. His son reminded him a lot of Eddy, always causing mischief and then playing innocent. He gave his father a toothy, innocent smile, and Ed knew then for sure that he was guilty.

“Go to your room,” Ed said. “And I never want to hear that you caused your baby sister distress again.”

“Fine.” Chuck sighed, shooting his sister a look.

“Oh, wait!” Ed said. “Your room is full of toys and comics and cool stuff. Go outside!”

Chuck raised one of his eyebrows, but just shrugged and said, “You're the boss.”

Ed sat back down on the bar stool he used for a chair, proud of himself. He was really good at this dad thing. And this husband thing. And this comic artist thing. He wished Eddy and Double D were still around. How proud they would be that he could keep the car washed and pay a mortgage and publish comic books. When he had gotten married, he'd longed for Eddy and Double D to be there so they could have a bachelor party and spend all night watching monster movies and eating junk-just one last time. He longed to tell Double D about his adventures in adulthood. He longed to tell Eddy about how his son, Chuck, was a lot like him. Eddy would have been his favorite uncle, probably. He longed to introduce them to his wife, Ann, who was sweet and wonderful and pretty and smelled nice and knew how to butter toast just the right way. He longed to show off Sophie, who loved unicorns and rainbows and cats.

Being an adult just wasn't the same without his pals.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Charlie, what are you doing?” Double D all but yelled as he raced into the kitchen to pull his son away from the toaster, where he was holding two different action figures.

“I'm making MeltMan, Dad,” Charlie said, grinning, his gap tooth prominent.

“Dear Lord, what on earth am I going to do with you?” Double D said, unplugging the toaster and inspecting it for damage.

Charlie simply shrugged and said, “Uh-nuh” which Double D assumed was 'I don't know' and then rolled his eyes when the eleven-year-old started picking his nose.

“Wash your hands,” he told him. “That is a vile habit, you know.”

Sometimes, Double D wondered what Charlie's mother was like because as much as he loved his son, and he did very, very much, the two were nothing alike. Charlie had always been a happy, easy to please child, but cared little for school, though his grades were passable. He was more interested in monsters and science fiction. He also considered clothes off of his bedroom floor to be clean as long as they _smelled_ clean.

“I was thinking today maybe we could drive out to the city and visit the museum,” Double D said as he led his son to the table where he had prepared a healthy breakfast of lean ham and grapefruit.

Charlie stabbed his grapefruit half with his spoon, letting juice go everywhere, and shrugged.

“Sure, Dad,” he said.

Double D, who had come out as gay in high school, knew the odds of him having a child the traditional way was out of the question, so after graduating college early and taking position as a professor at a prestigious university in the city, he had looked into his options for raising a child. Adoption was expensive and the process was long and complicated, but a surrogate...though pricey, seemed more reasonable, and was less expensive through a program funded by the university where the donors remained anonymous.

Double D wondered if he'd been too hasty in using that particular method because if he didn't know any better, he'd swear Ed was Charlie's mother. Of course, Double D would never let him get away with some of the more unpleasant habits Ed had possessed, but Charlie's head was simply always in the clouds except for when it came to monsters and aliens.

Double D missed Ed so much, and Eddy. The three of them had been outcasts, but at least they had been outcasts together. Double D worried for Charlie because the eleven-year-old, despite melting things in the toaster and mixing up words, was very kind and friendly, and other kids could be so cruel. He longed for Charlie to have his own companions like Eddy and himself-protectors in a way.

After breakfast, Charlie threw open the front door, and said, “Hey, we have new neighbors, Dad.”

“New neighbors?” Double D smiled. “Oh, yes, across the street. The Wendells must have moved out after all.”

“I thought maybe they'd been abducted by giant rat people,” Charlie said. “No, wait...”

Double D breathed a sigh of relief, thinking maybe that light bulb that turned on once in a while in his son's head had lit up.

“I meant ant people. They're going to make them slaves in their sugar mines.”

Double D let his eyes roll back in his head. His cheerful demeanor returned however, and he hurried to the kitchen and then returned with a pie in a dish. It was meant for the block party fourth of July party that night, but he could always bake another.

“Why don't we go greet our new neighbors?” He suggested, handing the pie to Charlie. “After all, just a few months ago, we were the new neighbors, remember?”

“But what if the ant people capture me?” Charlie asked and then said, “Nah. I'll just hit them with this pie.”

“Um, yes, well you go on ahead,” Double D said. “I'll be right behind you, just let me type up a quick welcome letter.”

“It's a dad and a son,” Charlie observed, walking out the door.

“Wait for me, Charlie,” Double D said. “I'll be right-”

The front door slammed shut.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We have a yard,” Chaz said as he helped his father carry things in from the car. The moving van would be right behind them. He knelt down and touched the grass. “St. Augustine.”

“Alright, Einstein,” Eddy said. “We'll have plenty of time to explore the grass. Grab that box, would you, Kid?”

Chaz did as he was told.

“I'm curious about the libraries here,” he said as he followed his father into the house, each of them holding a cardboard carton. “Or I guess just 'library' since it's a small community.”

When they walked back outside, Eddy nearly jumped a little. A boy of about eleven or twelve stood in their driveway, craning his neck as far as he could to see the contents of the boxes in the open hatchback trunk of the car. He had a sideways ball cap on, a gap in his teeth, and looked a lot like...

“Hi!” He said, waving some sort of flat glass container at them. “I'm your new neighbors. Woops. Well, you're our new neighbors. You're not ant people, are you?”

Eddy and Chaz both blinked.

“Um....” was all Chaz could say.

“My dad baked you this pie,” the boy said. “It's apple, and it's yummy, and if you heat it up in the micorwave and eat it with vanilla ice cream and mash it all together you can make-”

“Apple pie soup,” Eddy said with a grin. “Huh! Haven't heard that one in years.”

“My dad and me love making apple pie soup,” the boy said. “I'm Charlie.”

“Oh.” Chaz pushed his glasses up. “Is that short for Charles?”

“Yup.”

“My name's Charles too, but you can call me Chaz,” Chaz told him.

“Cool. We have the same name,” Charlie said. “Maybe we can read each other's thoughts.”

He stood there, grinning. There was an awkward silence.

“I guess not,” Charlie said with a shrug. “Oh, well! Worth a shot!”

“Hey, Kid,” Eddy said. “Thanks for the pie and all, but the squirt and I gotta keep unpacking.”

“Want me to help?” Charlie offered. “I like boxes, especially when they have stuff inside of them.”

“Charlie?”

Eddy turned to a familiar voice. He was dressed in some geeky University of British Columbia t-shirt, but still had the same old black slouch beanie on, only Eddy could tell his hair was neater and more trimmed underneath as it didn't stick out of his hat.

“Dad!” Charlie exclaimed happily. “The new neighbor kid and me are like twins! We have the same name!”

Double D was not even paying attention to him, but staring at Eddy, who was taller than he'd last seen him, still small in overall build but definitely a little taller. His hair was thicker and he had a little facial hair over his baby face.

“Oh, um, my,” was all he could he say, looking everywhere but Eddy.

“Wow, I thought you moved out to the city,” Eddy said. “I mean, I thought you stayed out there.”

“I only recently came back,” Double D said.

Eddy suddenly put the idea of Charlie being Double D's son into perspective. That meant there was a significant other somewhere, most likely at home, eating Double D's delicious apple pies.

“It seems our fathers know each other,” Chaz said, and Charlie nodded.

“Maybe they work together,” Charlie said. “Is your dad a professor too? Not like an evil super villain professor. Just a regular one.”

“Um, no...he's a bartender,” Chaz said.

“Whoa...” Charlie breathed.

“Wow, I mean, it's been forever,” Eddy said, rubbing the back of his head.

“Forever and a day,” Double D agreed. “I never thought that you'd come back here. I remember...um, Kimberly was so urban and attached to city life-”

Eddy sharply made a motion to shut Double D up. He quickly leaned in, putting an arm around his friend's shoulder and said quietly, “There's a lot to that. Not in front of my kid, okay?”

“Right,” Double D said hesitantly and they broke apart.

Double D smiled at Chaz.

“Hello, Chaz,” he said, sticking out his hand. “It's a pleasure to meet you.”

Chaz shook his hand and replied, “Hello, Sir.”

“He's a real bookworm just like you,” Eddy said. “Maybe as smart as you too. Probably smarter.”

“Could you please tell me about the library or libraries here?” Chaz asked politely.

Double D didn't remember much about Kim or what she looked like, and though he didn't look completely like Eddy, Double D could see a lot of him in him. His hair, his eye color, his baby face, his short stature.

Eddy was studying Charlie too. There was no doubt about that he was Double D's kid. He was the spitting image almost, except with a better sense of fashion and he actually showed his hair. Eddy never understood why Double D wouldn't get over that dumb scar on the side of his head. Sure it left a bald spot, but so what? It would make a great conversation starter.

“I like your car,” Charlie told Eddy. “It's cool. And shiny. And my shoe is untied.”

He knelt down to die it and Eddy snickered and Double D rolled his eyes muttering affectionately about his son's attention span.

“Hey!” Charlie said. “Chaz, do you want me to show you around the cul de sac? The playground is for babies, but there's other cool stuff.”

“Um...” Chaz stiffened nervously and glanced at his father. He tugged at Eddy's sleeve and when Eddy leaned down, his son whispered, “I don't know how to respond without sounding 'lame'.”

Eddy shrugged and said, “Just say yes, Kid.”

“Yes.” Chaz stood up straight. “I would most delighted for you to show me around. Thank you, Charlie.”

Charlie blinked and then busted out in a big toothy-gap smile. He grabbed Chaz by the arm and said, “Pedal to the metal!”

The two of them sped off, Charlie dragging Chaz behind him like a kid-shaped flag. Eddy laughed and said, “Eh, he'll be alright. He's just shy is all. How'd I even get a shy kid?”

“Charlie's very friendly,” Double D assured him. “A little rough, but friendly.”

The two of them sat in silence for a few seconds.

“Shall I help you unpack?” Double D finally offered, and Eddy nodded.

They worked together mostly in silence to move box after box from the back of the car to the house.

“So did you ever hear from Ed?” Eddy asked, and to his disappointment, Double D shook his head.

“I miss him,” he said. “Greatly, but his parents moved away and I have no idea of how to get in touch with anybody to find him.”

“I hope that big lug made it,” Eddy said. “Remember how he was starting art school? He seemed so into it.”

“You're hoping he didn't wind up at the factory like his father,” Double D guessed, also hoping the same thing. All through high school Ed was pressured by his father to drop out and start work at the factory.

The two of them stared at the towers of boxes they'd created. Eddy looked at the pie on the kitchen counter.

“Got any ice cream?” He asked. “Apple pie soup sounds pretty good for lunch.”

“I'll go get it,” Double D said, smiling.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey, Charlie!” Chuck called, waving the boys over. “Wanna help me make a few bucks?”

He was holding a sign that read 'speed trap' and had a tip jar.

“Okay!” Charlie said, screeching to a halt. “Wanna come, Chaz?”

“Um...” Chaz frowned skeptically. “Is that a sign to warn motorists of waiting law enforcement?”

“Yup,” Chuck said, grinning. “I do this a lot at the front of the neighborhood. A lot of people are willing to thank you with quarters for saving them hundreds on a speeding ticket.”

“But isn't that an obstruction of justice?” Chaz asked skeptically. He didn't like the idea of aiding speeders.

“Not according to the first amendment,” Chuck said. “Come on. It'll be fun.”

The three of them began to walk and Chuck asked, “So is your name Charles too?”

“Yes,” Chaz said.

“Huh. Charles, Charles, and Charles,” Chuck said.

“No, Chaz, Chuck, and Charlie,” Charlie said, going cross-eyed when a ladybug flew onto his nose.

“So your folks just moved here, huh?” Chuck asked. “Where'd you come from?”

“The city,” Chaz replied. “My father felt it more suitable to raise me where he was raised. He kept talking about the fresh air and what not.”

“I would kill to live in the city,” Chuck said. “Make tons of money.”

Chaz smiled a little and said, “It's not that great, and it's very expensive. My father and I barely got by.”

“What does your old man do?” Chuck wanted to know.

“He's a bartender,” Chaz said. “He's hoping to open his own restaurant someday. It was hard to save when our bills and our rent was so high, so he took the savings we had and bought a house here in Peach Creek, and he's going to start over.”

“My dad's a professor,” Charlie said. “He teaches stuff to grown up kids who pay billions of dollars and don't ever get jobs.”

“My dad's a comic book writer,” Chuck said, grinning. “He's a really fun dad, but he's also pretty dopey sometimes.”

“So is my dad,” Charlie said. “He thinks he's so smart, but when I turn up a song that's playing on the radio that everybody knows, he asks me who sings it.”

The two of them got to the front of the neighborhood and Chuck held up the sign. Chaz looked around nervously for an officer, who at any minute now would get out of his patrol car and come arrest them. He didn't see one to his left, his right, or even across the street.

“Where is it?” He asked.

“Where's what?” Chuck and Charlie asked together.

“The speed trap,” Chaz said.

“Oh, there isn't one,” Chuck said, and Chaz's glasses slipped off of his nose slightly.

“There isn't one? What do you mean there isn't one? You said you were out here to warn drivers of a speed trap.”

“Yeah, but that doesn't mean there really is one,” Chuck said, spinning the sign. “It's called swindling, Chaz. I'm not here for charity or to be a good smarten.”

“Samaritan,” Chaz corrected automatically.

“I'm just here to catch grasshoppers,” Charlie said, diving in the grass to get one. “Their legs feel scratchy on your face.”

A few cars drove by, slowed down, and hands came out to drop quarters and dollar bills into Chuck's jar. Chuck shook it, grinning like a clown.

“This feels wrong,” Chaz said, rubbing _his_ bicep nervously.

“This feels _weird,_ ” Charlie said, his head tilted back as a grasshopper was perched on his nose.

“This feels like jawbreakers,” Chuck said, shaking the jar which was half full now.

“I love jawbreakers!” Charlie exclaimed, throwing grasshoppers in every direction. “So does my dad. That's what we get when we go to the movies.”

The boys headed back toward the cul de sac and Chuck suggested, “Let's stop at my house first.”

Charlie and Chaz followed him without question to a house a street over from Chaz and Charlie's homes. Chuck opened the door and the other boys stopped at stared.

On the wall in frames were pictures of famous monsters from comic books, cartoons and movies.

“Whoa...” Charlie said. “Holy cheese, is that a poster of the Slug Thing?”

“Yup.” Chuck glanced at it, uninterested. “My dad created all of those monsters.”

“You're kidding...” Chaz said, picking up a comic that was lying on the coffee table. “Are you telling us that your father is-”

“Hi, Son!”

A man walked into the living room carrying a little girl on his shoulders. He raised his one eyebrow in surprise at the other two boys.

“Eddy and Double D?” He asked quietly, leaning down to poke at their faces.

“Um, hello, Sir,” Chaz said.

“Hey, your dad called my dad 'Double D',” Charlie told Chaz. He then shook his head and grabbed the comic book out of Chaz's hand, thrusting it at Chuck's father.

“Did you really write _Invasion of the Bunnies_?”

Chuck's dad nodded proudly.

“I also drew the pictures,” he said.

He and Charlie began a ninety miles a minute conversation about comic books and horror movies which left Chuck and Chaz uninterested for the most part. Chaz let his eyes wander around the room, beyond the framed monster posters, and he noticed some photographs on an end table. He walked over to them and picked one up. It was a picture of three boys, the picture itself crooked and taken by Chuck's father, who was obviously holding the camera. The flash had left him one red eye and his tongue was sticking out. The other two boys...

“Those are my best friends,” Chuck's dad said, walking over to them. “Eddy and Double D.”

“Come on, guys,” Chuck said. “The candy store'll be closing soon.”

“Mr. Chuck's dad, can I borrow this?” Charlie asked, holding up the comic book. “I'll return it.”

Ed smiled and waved a hand.

“Aw, shucks,” he said. “Keep it. I have a lot more.”

He shifted his eyes and whispered, “And I can draw more.”

He winked dramatically and Charlie winked back. The boys followed Chuck out the door and to the candy store where they each bought a different flavored jawbreaker. Chuck bought sour apple, Charlie got lemon-lime, and Chaz got grape. They finished their confections before they got back to Chaz's house, leaving Chuck a street behind to go to his own home.

 

\-----------------------------

 

“We're back!” Charlie called as Chaz opened the front door.

“Did you have a good time, boys?” Double D asked. He and Eddy were unpacking boxes. Some of the furniture was already set up.

“Yes, Sir,” Chaz said politely.

“Dad, look! Lookit, Dad!” Charlie excited thrust the comic book in his father's face. “Chuck-the kid a block over-his dad writes comic books. He wrote this one. It's one of my favorites. It's about mutant bunnies that make you float and swell up in spots and-”

“Oh,” Double D said, pulling the book back so he could actually see it. Curiously, he began flipping through it.

“This seems rather familiar,” he mused, and then smiled a little, his brows furrowed slightly. “It's just like the time-”

He stopped when he got to a page with a muscular manholding a board with a face drawn on it. There was another man riding a motor cycle, and a pretty girl with golden blonde hair. Even though it took place on some distant, fictional planet, even the setting seemed familiar as the battle ground went into a rounded shape.

“Charlie,” he asked, flipping it back to the cover. The author's name was unfamiliar to him. “Who did you say wrote this?”

“Chuck's dad,” Charlie said, eating some left over pie standing up at the kitchen counter. “They live a street over.”

Double D passed it to Eddy, the very last page open. It was a preview for the next book titled _Kanker Harpies Three._

“No way,” Eddy said, quickly flipping through the comic. “It couldn't be-”

The two men looked at one another and then at their kids.

“Where does this guy live again?” Eddy asked.

 

To Be Continued...

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I was hoping to finish at least another chapter before EddEddy appreciation month ended on tumblr and it looks like I barely made it. Thank you for all of the kudos, and if you have any questions/comments/ect I'll try and answer them asap.  
> Now, for a real note about the story. Since the Ed boys are adults now, I've pictured their voices maturing (at least Eddy and Double D's) so in my head their voices sound more like their voice actor's speaking voices rather than their kid voices in the actual series. I know that's not really all that relevant, but I like to share useless information. I'm weird that way.

“Come on, Double D!” Eddy coaxed, sounding just like he did in the old days except for his voice was finally mature enough not to crack.

Eddy, followed by Double D followed by Chaz and Charlie, were making their way to Chuck's house. Eddy was practically sprinting.

“Dad, I don't understand!” Chaz said, trying to keep up. “What's going on?”

“Run, Dad, run!” Charlie exclaimed, running backwards, smiling at his own father who was wheezing and panting.

All four of them made it to Chuck's house, and Charlie stopped abruptly. Double D leaned forward, his hands on his knees.

“Still?” Eddy asked, teasing just a little.

“I've only gotten older, Eddy,” Double D retorted, a hint of teasing in his tone as well.

Charlie rapped on the door. A little girl answered, licking a popsicle. Eddy and Double D's eyebrows raised simultaneously. She looked a blonde version of Sarah.

“Is your dad home?” Charlie asked. “And do you have any red popsicles?”

“Daddy!” The little girl yelled. “Door!”

Eddy and Double D's legs nearly gave out when a man came to the door, and it was Ed. He had a little face stubble and his hair had grown out beyond a buzz cut. He was wearing a comic book monster t-shirt and jeans. He stared at them and scratched his head.

“Ed?” Double D asked carefully.

Ed continued to stare for a moment and then said, “Wow. You Mormons look like my friends Eddy and Double D.”

“We're not Mormons, you lughead!” Eddy said, a big grin spreading across his face. “It's us!”

“Who?!” Ed asked excitedly.

“Eddy and Double D,” the other two exclaimed together.

“MY PALS!” Ed said, pulling them into a bone crunching hug and kissing their cheeks. “My best friends! You are no longer lost! You are found!”

Chaz cocked his head slightly, his glasses sliding down his nose a little, and Charlie grinned, sticking his tongue through the gap in his teeth.

“Daddy?” The little girl tugged on his shirt. “Who are these guys?”

Unwrapping one hand from the other men, Ed scooped the little girl up and practically smooshed her face into Double D's.

“This is my little angel dumpling, Sophie!” He said proudly and then set her down.

He pulled them inside and set them down and then reached out again to pull Chaz and Charlie inside. Once the door was shut, he hopped all around until they were forced back on a worn looking sofa.

“Oh boy!” He said. “It's really you!”

“Dad?” Chuck walked into the living room. “You sound really excited. What's going on-”

Ed grabbed him and shook him wildly in front of Eddy and Double D.

“And this is my son, Chuck!” He told them, and then stopped, looking between Chaz and Charlie.

“Ed,” Double D said, catching on to what Ed had just figured out. He put his hands on Charlie's shoulders and said, “This is _my_ son, Charlie.”

“Yeah, and my kid,” Eddy said, rubbing Chaz's hair affectionately. “Chaz.”

Ed pulled both boys into a hug laughing, kissing their heads.

“I am an uncle!” He exclaimed.

After he settled down slightly, all of them took places on the sofa or other sitting furniture. It was silent except for the clock on the wall. The three men just stared at one another, grinning like idiots.

“So...” Chuck asked, looking from side to side. “You're all friends?”

“Best friends,” Eddy said. “I haven't seen your dolt of a dad since college.”

“I believe a lot of your father's ideas for his graphic novels are somewhat based on our real life adventures,” Double D said, flipping through a comic book that was sitting on the coffee table.

“Yeah.” Chuck grinned. “He's told me and Soph all about them. The Kankers, Johnny and Plank, the alien visitors.”

“I can't believe you actually did it,” Eddy said, looking around. “You must have movie companies callin' you all the time.”

“I get paid to draw and tell stories,” Ed told him. “What do you get paid to do?”

Eddy shrugged. He couldn't help but feel just a teensy bit jealous that Double D and Ed had actually achieved their dreams and he hadn't.

“I'm a bartender,” he said. “Still savin' up to open my own place.”

“Cool!” Ed said, impressed by anything as always. “You should have glow in the dark bathrooms.”

Everyone except Charlie furrowed their eyebrows.

“I'll, uh, keep that in mind,” Eddy told him.

“Double D, what do you do?” Ed asked his other friend.

“I'm a professor at the University of British Columbia,” Double D said. “I teach anthropology, physics, chemistry, marketing and business-”

“Okay, we get it,” Eddy said. “You're still a genius.”

Double D quit listing these things on his fingers. He had a feeling Eddy was feeling a little inadequate, so he decided to turn the conversation to the subject of children.

“How funny that we all named our sons Charles,” he said.

Ed started laughing hysterically at this, and slapped Chuck on the back, making him fall forward from his spot on the armrest of the sofa.

The front door opened and a woman stepped in, pretty and blonde, carrying a bag of groceries.

“Oh, hello,” she greeted in surprise, looking around.

“Ann!” Ed shot up. “My beautiful, wonderful, soft and cuddly wife!”

He pulled her into a hug and she giggled, pecking him on the lips. Ed obediently took the groceries from her and went to put them away.

“Hello,” Ann said, holding out her hand and Eddy and Double D each shook it. “I'm Ann.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Ann,” Double D said politely. “My name is Eddward, but Ed calls me-”

“Double D,” Ann said, smiling. “Ed has talked about the two of you for years.”

She looked between them and asked, “How on Earth did he find you?”

“He didn't actually,” Double D said. “Our sons sort of found each other.”

Ed returned, slurping up a celery stalk and said, “You two must stay for dinner! I insist.”

“I'm making meatloaf and gravy,” Ann added. “We would love for you to stay. Ed's told me so much about your adventures as kids-all of the funny things you did.”

She walked away into the kitchen, Ed waving to her. He turned back to them and said, “She is so great.”

“Yeah, I'm curious,” Eddy wanted to know. “How did you end up with a dame like that?”

“We met in art school,” Ed said. “She draws pictures for books for children. Happy things like butterflies and kittens and potties!”

“That's wonderful, Ed” Double D told him sincerely. For years he'd dreaded the idea of poor Ed working in a factory, married to some woman who would use his money and see other men, knowing that he would never find out.

“Oh!” Ed said. “You should invite your wives too! They can talk about lady things like how messy we are while we talk about manly things like toe lint.”

Eddy frowned and Double D blinked.

“Um, Ed?” Double D touched his fingertips together. “Remember in high school when I 'came out' to you and Eddy? It was a sleepover weekend at my house? I wrote a speech and what not?”

Ed stared into space and snapped his fingers.

“Oh, yeah,” he laughed. “And you had cheese doodles.”

“Yes, I did,” Double D said. “I knew you liked them, but Ed, do you remember what my 'coming out' was about?”

Ed frowned, thinking hard.

“He's gay, Lumpy!” Eddy said. “Remember? He likes guys.”

“Then you will invite your husband,” Ed said, pulling Double D under his armpit.

“I don't have a husband, Ed,” Double D choked out, trying not to smell his armpit.

“And I ain't got no wife,” Eddy added.

Ed pushed Double Do away, his face crumpling.

“No wife?!” He bellowed dramatically. “But who kisses you goodnight and in the morning and who do you send flowers to and who washes behind your ears in the shower?”

“Ann washes behind your ears?” Eddy frowned.

“Ed,” Double D said gently. “Yes, Eddy and I don't have spouses, but we're not sad or lonely. We have Chaz and Charlie.”

Eddy was quiet then. Double D may have been fine, but he didn't know how wrong he was about Eddy. Eddy was very lonely. He wouldn't trade Chaz for anything in the world, but it would be nice to go to bed with someone at night like he used to with Kim.

Ed was too busy sobbing to listen. He picked up Double Do and wiped his tears and snot into his shirt. Eddy rolled his eyes and said, “Come on, Ed.”

 

=======================================

 

Despite Ed and his children having different personalities, the three of them had the same table manners and love of food-especially gravy. The gravy boat was more like a gravy ark. Ann didn't seem to mind, and as Ed and the children ate like feral animals, she simply cut at her meatloaf calmly and asked Eddy and Double D more about their time together with her husband.

Double D answered her, giving Charlie a quick warning look as his son attempted to build a sculpture out of his mashed potatoes. Eddy listened, but didn't have much to add because there wasn't really anything to add. Ed had practically told his wife about every adventure they'd ever had and then some.

“So, Ann?” Double D asked politely, scooting Charlie's plate away from the boy all together. “How did you and Ed meet?”

Ann blushed and looked at Ed, who grinned at her with a horse smile.

“We met in art school,” she said. “We were studying very different things and had very different interests, but he was just so sweet and friendly.”

“Ann was the only one who would sit and talk to me while I ate lunch,” Ed said, his eyes full of love. “And listen to stories about pan-delivered vampires and radioactive zombie monkeys.”

“Gross,” Chuck said, taking a big bite of meatloaf.

“Tell them, Daddy,” Sophie said, sighing dreamily. “Tell them what you told Mommy.”

Ed's face was blank for a moment and then squinched up into a heart-warming grin.

“I told her she made me feel all warm and fuzzy when I was around her and I was sad and cold when she wasn't around me,” he said. “And then I gave her a Twinkie.”

Ann laughed affectionately and said, “I gave him my phone number and the rest is history. We were married two years later.”

Double D smiled and said, “That's a lovely story. I'm so happy for the both of you.”

“Hey, Eddy?” Ed asked. “What happened to Kim? That girl with the nose ring-” as he said this, he jabbed his index finger up one nostril.

“She's gone,” Eddy muttered curtly.

Chaz looked up from his dinner curiously, but he knew better than to ask questions. Ever since he'd been old enough to ask about her, his father had closed to the door on every conversation opening. He never seemed too thrilled to discuss anything concerning Chaz's maternal history.

“Okay,” Chuck said, standing up. “Mom? Dad? May I be excused? This lovey-dovey stuff is great for you grown ups, but it makes me queasy.”

“Queasy?” Sophie grinned.

Chuck also grinned and elbowed his father playfully.

“Yeah,” he said. “Like I wanna throw up.”

“Throw up!” Ed shouted.

“VOMIT!” Sophie shouted, standing up in her chair.

“Up chuck!” Chuck said.

Eddy, Chaz, Double D, and Charlie watched in utter confusion as an Ed and his children began making vomiting noises, sticking their index fingers down their throat. They started laughing and Ed took them both under his arm, giving them noogies.

“Um, what just happened?” Eddy asked.

“Oh,” Ann said with a shrug. “Any time someone mentions something about throwing up, they make a big show out of it. It's just a little inside family thing.”

She dismissed it with the wave of her hand.

“How quaint,” Double D said. “Charlie, it's sort of like how you and I write in code to each other on sticky notes.”

Charlie grinned.

Eddy wanted to add something, something special that only he and his son shared, but there was nothing. As much as Eddy loved Chaz, the two were as different as night and day, and didn't spend a lot of quality time together unless it was at the movies or eating. When they ate dinner at home, the television was usually on. When they ate out, they had menus to bury their faces in or customers to pretend to be interested in.

Eddy suddenly felt horrible about everything. Chaz's room back in the city had been outfitted with a TV, video game system, DVD player, computer, and mini fridge-practically his own little apartment within the apartment, and despite the issue of the bathroom, there was practically no reason for him to leave his bedroom at all.

“Yeah, yeah,” Charlie said. “During the school year when Dad has to leave before me, we write on sticky notes, but we have our own language and sometimes we'll make up new words and the other one has to use clues to figure out what it means.”

“How clever!” Ann said, standing up to retrieve dessert-a large chocolate chiffon cake. “Ed and the kids like to rearrange the furniture in the living room on rainy days and pretend there's been a zombie outbreak.”

“And on snow days we stay in our pajamas all day and Dad reads us scary books,” Sophie said. “And then on those nights I always get scared and sleep in the bed with Mama and Daddy.”

“Aww...” Ed patted her head and then kissed it.

Eddy stole a glance at Chaz, who quickly looked away. He had been looking at Eddy too. After dessert and coffee, Eddy and Double D bid their farewells and promised to visit the following day and rekindle the relationship. They were forced to promise after Ed had practically crushed all of their ribs in a bone-crunching hug.

 

=================================================================================

 

As Eddy and Double D and their sons walked back, Double D sighed, looking up at the stars.

“What a fantastic day,” he said. “Reunited with my best friends. My son making friends with their sons.”

Charlie grinned at Chaz, who smiled shyly. They stopped in front of Double D's house. Charlie began spinning in circles, stopping and swaying around like a little eleven-year-old drunk.

“Charlie,” his father said. “I'll be in a moment. Go inside and take a shower.”

“Okie-dokie, Pokey,” Charlie said, swaying to the front door. “Whoa...whoa...g'night, Mr. Eddy! G'night, Chaz!”

“Night,” Eddy said.

“Good night,” Chaz said shyly.

“You two, Kid,” Eddy said, tugging at his son's ear gently. “You smell. Hit the shower.”

“Okay,” Chaz said.

Once both boys were gone, Double D smiled at Eddy and said softly, “You don't know how good it is to see you.”

Eddy rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered.

“No, really,” Double D said. “After that ridiculous fight...”

“It wasn't ridiculous,” Eddy told him with a shrug. “You were right. Kim was no good. I should have stayed in college, got my marketing degree-everything you told me to do.”

“I shouldn't have mapped your life out for you,” Double D admitted. “And then become annoyed when you made your own choices.”

It was strange hearing Double D admit he was wrong, but Eddy didn't say anything about it. He simply pretended to be interested in some fireflies that were buzzing around in the bushes.

“Ed really made it, huh?” He finally said. “Hot wife, cool kids. Did you see how close they all were?”

“Tell me, Eddy,” Double D said instead of answering his question. “Are you and Chaz close?”

It was like Double D had pinned his wings to a board and was cutting him open. Eddy wriggled his toes inside of his shoes.

“Chaz isn't like me,” he said. “And I try to be there for him and stuff, but I dunno...what about your twerp, Ed jr? How does that feel?”

Double D smiled and shrugged one shoulder casually.

“You don't feel like you can't connect with him sometimes?” Eddy asked, trying to hide the worry in his voice.

“Charlie's much different than me,” Double D said. “But the journey of parenting should be a learning experience. What fun would it be having a child who's exactly like me?”

A little less humorously he said, “It's why you and Ed are my best friends. We're all so very different, but we balance each other out.”

“I'm proud of Chaz,” Eddy said with a sigh. “The kid's so smart and he'll go places without or without my help, but I know I'm not the kind of dad he wants to brag about.”

Double D put a hand on his shoulder.

“Don't say things like that,” he told him. “Look, how about tomorrow we all get together again? Start rebuilding this burned bridge? What do you say?”

Eddy wasn't listening. His thoughts were light years away, going all the way back to the fighting and moving out of the campus apartment. Kim, in all of her slutty glory, had been sitting on the couch while Eddy and Double D had screamed at one another, Ed begging them to stop. The two of them had never really cared for Kim, especially Double D.

“Eddy?” Double D asked gently, snapping him back to reality.

“Kim left us,” Eddy said suddenly. “In the middle of the night, Chaz wasn't even a year old yet. She left a note. A year later I got divorce papers in the mail with instructions from her lawyer not to contact her.”

“Oh, Eddy,” Double D said sympathetically.

“I understand her leaving me,” Eddy said. “I'm a terrible human being.”

“You're not-”

“Double D, yes I am, okay? I'm selfish and I'm rude and I spent our entire childhood treating you and Ed like hired help,” he exploded. “And then when you came out, I cracked jokes all the way through senior year and we made plans for college, got an apartment and I moved some skank in and drove you two away and now she doesn't even want her son. So yeah, it's perfectly normal for her to want me out of her life, but Chaz? He's a great kid.”

He let out a deep, shuddering sigh.

“Eddy?” Double D said gently. “It's her loss.”

Eddy frowned.

“I just poured out my life story and all my emotions and that's what you have to say?” He asked sarcastically.

“It is,” Double D said simply. “Chaz seems like an amazing young man, and guess who's molding him into that person? Not Kim.”

Eddy felt himself soften just a little. Double D smiled at him and Eddy smiled just a little too.

“Sorry for that big spill,” He muttered. “My mind just went back to that night you and Ed moved out. I've never gotten over it.”

“I really have to be going,” Double D said. “Charlie knows the password for the parental controls on the television, but since we're out here, back on the streets of Peach Creek, confessing our woes...I have one too.”

“Okay,” Eddy said. “Shoot.”

“Dad!” Charlie opened the front door in his pajamas. “Grandma's on the phone!”

“Tomorrow,” Double D said.

 

\---------------------------------------=================================================

 

“Hey, Squirt,” Eddy said, going back into the house where Chaz was on the couch reading a scientific journal. He flopped down beside him.

“Your friends seemed fun,” Chaz said, closing his book.

“Those guys are a riot,” Eddy agreed. “We had good times.”

Chaz drummed his fingers awkwardly against the book. Eddy frowned skeptically at him.

“Could you tell me about some of the things you did as kids?” Chaz asked, his cheeks turning red.

Eddy couldn't hide the smile that formed on his face.

“Yeah, sure, definitely,” he said. “You know what? Let me grab some pop out of the fridge and we'll go sit on the back porch and I'll tell you about the time I made us all wear my brother's speedos to a pool party and they popped off.”

Chaz got up from the couch when Eddy did.

“You were naked?” He asked, his eyes wide, his mouth smiling.

“Not a stitch on us,” Eddy agreed. “We had to sit in a pool until dark. We were freezing our asses off!”

Eddy went to the kitchen and took two bottles of pop from the fridge. He and Chaz went out the back door where no real patio furniture was set up yet, but they had lawn chairs.

“Or the time Double D and Ed got into a fight over some moldy cheese in Ed's jacket pocket,” Eddy said, and Chaz laughed a little at that. It was music to Eddy's ears.

It was nearly midnight when they finally decided to go inside, and Chaz was yawning between every question.

“Get to bed, Kid,” Eddy said, pulling him close by the head and kissing his hair. His heartbeat sped up a little as he quickly added, “I love you.”

Chaz's sleepy eyes widened at that slightly. He knew his father loved him, but he hardly ever said the words.

“Love you too,” he mumbled, just as awkwardly.

Eddy only hoped Peach Creek and the return of Ed and Double D would change all of this awkwardness between them.

 

To Be Continued...

 


End file.
